A YouTube clip of a DJ mixing tracks on a Wyoming mountainside has landed in hot water — not for the music, but for how it was filmed. Posted on October 14, the video shows a man in a green jacket performing at Blacktail Butte, a 7,000-foot peak inside Grand Teton National Park, with aerial shots that look suspiciously like drone footage. That's a problem, because drones have been banned across every National Park Service site since 2014.
The rules are not a slap on the wrist. Flying an unauthorised drone in a national park can cost you up to $5,000 and as much as six months in jail. Grand Teton spokesperson Emily Davis confirmed park officials are aware of the video, though she wouldn't say where it was filmed, whether the operator had written permission from the superintendent (the only way to fly legally), or whether any citations were issued. The video has since been deleted from YouTube.
Why the hard line? According to Davis, drones can stress and displace wildlife, ruin the natural soundscape, endanger visitors on the ground, and — critically — force aerial search-and-rescue and wildfire operations to stand down. A single rogue drone can ground the aircraft trying to find a lost hiker or drop water on a fire.
Wyoming's parks have form on this. In May 2026, a visitor at neighbouring Yellowstone filmed an unauthorised drone buzzing within feet of Beryl, a well-known grizzly sow, and her two cubs near a roadway. Back in 2014, drones crashed into Yellowstone's Grand Prismatic Spring and Yellowstone Lake in the same year. And in 2017, Grand Teton rangers publicly hunted for a drone pilot who had hovered over grizzly bears near Oxbow Bend — neither the aircraft nor its operator was found.
For anyone planning a trip to Grand Teton or Yellowstone, the takeaway is simple: leave the drone at home or save it for land outside park boundaries. Rangers take violations seriously, fellow visitors are quick to report them, and the parks have a decade of incidents to justify the crackdown. The wildlife — grizzlies included — behaves better without the buzz, and your wallet and record will thank you.
Story via Outside Online.
